After Summer
by ShadowRunner31
Summary: After the events of Love Machine's attack on OZ the Jinnouchi family is starting to get back into normal life, but it isn't as easy as it sounds. With the whole world affected by OZ and without Granny to guide them things aren't going to be easy. And what about Kenji? Taking a break from work seemed like a good idea but can he survive the chaos that is the Jinnouchi clan?
1. Chapter 1

The day August 18, 2010 was a clear beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was a gently breeze blowing. Kenji Koiso walked across the field of morning glories on the Jinnouchi land, he was going to visit the grave of Sakae Jinnouchi.

Kenji approached the grave, it was a very simple one, after all Sakae had said to make her funeral simple, and that had included the grave, personally Kenji knew that most of the family would have wanted to give her a stunning grave but had chosen to follow her wishes. It was easy to see why a woman like Sakae Jinnouchi would deserve a grand funeral, she had done so much in her life, and although her family probably wished she had, she had never stopped doing what she felt had to be done. Even the day before she died Sakae had done all she could to protect and help people in a time of crisis. She had been an amazing woman, and she would be missed by so many.

Kenj pulled some incense sticks out of his pocket, lit them, and placed them in front of the grave before kneeling down.

"Hello Sakae… I.." He looked down and sighed, "it's hard to believe that it's been two weeks already. Everyone is holding up well, and we're finally moving back into our normal lives. I think it's understandable that it took this long, I mean so much had happened after all." Kenji was silent for a moment as he thought about those three days that had become the most memorable days of any summer in his life.

"Wabisuke was brought in for questioning." Kenji said after a moment, "he should be fine, after all when Love Machine caused all that trouble in OZ it hadn't been him who activated it."

The birds passing overhead called out to each other and the breeze picked up. Kenji took a moment to look up to the sky and just soak in the warmth of the sun, it truly was beautiful here.

"I guess I should get to the point of my visit." Kenji said directing his attention back to the grave, "I wanted to thank you. You were the first person who had believed in me like you did. Frankly my whole life I've had so little to feel confident about that I had come to expect to be overlooked, until you and your family helped me see that I could make a difference. You showed me that we can make a difference even when things seem most impossible.

So I wanted to stop here and thank you for that. But there was one other thing, the matter of a certain card game…."


	2. Chapter 2

August 2, 2010

Kenji walked down the hallway of the Jinnouchi house groaning as he stretched, sleeping had not been particularly comfortable. Due to the rest of the family arriving for Sakae's funeral the day before and the house having been heavily damaged from the satellite probe crashing to the earth less than a quarter mile away there had been a lot of rearranging to do to accommodate everyone and Kenji's new bed had been old and worn out.

As he walked into the dining area many of the others were already up and about setting breakfast on the table, including Natsuki. Natsuki looked up at Kenji and smiled, he blushed furiously and smiled back. He should say something but he couldn't form the words in his mind and didn't seem to remember how to speak. He was saved the trouble as Mariko called Natsuki into the kitchen.

Kenji sighed as he stepped out of the hallway and sat down as the others started to pour into the dining room. Things had been awkward between him and Natuski ever since arriving in Ueda, just thinking about it all made him suppress a groan as he sat down next to Mansuke. Of course things were awkward. He came to Ueda thinking he would be working as a hired hand but then had been introduced as Nasuki's fiancé. That charade hadn't lasted long, not even twenty four hours, and as if being found out for going along with that crazy idea hadn't been enough there had been the whole incident of being framed for cyber crimes. Then everything else between OZ and Sakae's death had happened leaving everyone emotionally spent, but then at the funeral Kenji and Natsuki had admitted they had feelings for each other and she had even kissed him…. And he had passed out. Just thinking about how he had passed out was enough to make Kenji almost pass out again from embarrassment. The most popular girl at his school says she likes him, kisses him, and he passes out, in front of her family and everything.

Speaking of her family most of them were present now, most of them looking like they had been up for hours, others (like Mansaku) looking like they had just rolled out of bed. After the funeral no one had been in any particular hurry to return to the various homes, in fact no one had really said what they planned to do next. Sakae had said in her letter to them that she wanted them to return to their everyday lives, but they had been planning to spend this time with family but merely under different circumstances, so it was alright to use that little loophole.

The rest of the food was brought in and then suddenly the walls seemed to shake as the terrible trio of cousins known as Shingo, Mao, and Yuhei come charging in and fall into place around the table. The last ones to the table were Kazuma and his parents. It was interesting to see Kazuma lighten up a bit when his father was around, apparently his dad worked as a software developer and had to go to a lot of business trip to developers conferences and the like, so him being around a was sadly a rare occurrence at times. How close the family was never seemed to stop amazing Kenji, even when they rarely got to see each other like Kazuma and his dad, or the brothers Mansuke and Mansaku, seeing them together like this anyone would know that they would face any danger in the world if it meant helping their family.

Of course the family being so close also meant that they shared certain characteristics, which included parts of their personalities. Just remembering how all of them (besides Shota) had been cheering for him and Natsuki to kiss was enough to bring the color rising to Kenji's face in embarrassment. And now, whenever he and Natsuki were within five feat of each other the whole family would start grinning suggestively, oh they thought they were cleverly keeping it hidden, but when that many people have an expression like that on their face you're bound to notice sooner or later.

Then there was Wabisuke. As soon as the Love Machine incident was over and everyone had decided that they weren't about to fall over dead, and that no satellites or meteorites were going to fall out the sky at them (neither one would have seemed surprising at this point), Wabisuke had gone and confessed to every part of his involvement with the attack on OZ. Due to the rapid wildfire spread of the news Wabisuke hadn't even been able to openly attend Sakae's funeral, and that had been after the rest of the family had actually invited him to join. Thankfully they had understood his reasons, should anyone with the authority to arrest him show up he didn't want to cause a scene, to their relief, no one had come asking and now Wabisuke was with them, for the first time in a long time completely welcome.

The food all served everyone began to eat. The simple meal combined with the sound of the wind chimes (now re-hung) and the beautiful though out of place hot spring just visible made for a very relaxed atmosphere. That is until Wabisuke sighed putting his food aside and stared at his hands, immediately the seriousness in the room became stifling.

"I was contacted this morning by the authorities." He said after a moment, half the family froze with food half way to their mouths. "I was told that I can either turn myself in or they can bring me in by force."

"But you're innocent!" Natsuki said dismayed, everyone else weren't looking too happy either.

"It's just like everyone was saying the other night Natsuki," he sighed heavily again, "I may not have told Love Machine what to do but I did create it, and truth be told I knew how dangerous it could be especially in the hands of any military, whether I like to admit it or not part of the blame does land on my shoulders."

"I have a lawyer friend," Tasuke said after a moment of tense silence, "I can get in contact with him." Wabisuke smiled slightly.

"Thanks but I don't think that will be necessary. Everyone knows that the ones responsible for the attack on OZ was the U.S. Military, they probably just want me to tell them anything they don't already know. Besides," he became serious once more, "there are some things that I'd like to see if they know."

"What could possibly be so important?" Mariko asked after a moment.

"When Kazuma managed to take out Love Machine the little bastard still had two accounts, Kenji's and one that we never saw."

"What does it matter now? That Ai was destroyed and it isn't coming back." Kazuma said looking up. Wabisuke shook his head.

"You don't understand, to be able to infiltrate OZ, even to the point of sending out a mass e-mail, Love Machine would have needed a host body, or rather a host account." Confused silence was all that was heard around the Table until Tasuke spoke up.

"So your saying that someone else, willingly or unwillingly would have had their account taken over by Love Machine from the get go?" Wabisuke nodded. "Ok but what does that matter? It was probably just some random account from the U.S. Military."

"You could be right, but I need to know, I can't explain it but I need to. Besides there's a lot of other things to be concerned about. They're probably worried about the possibility of someone bringing the damn thing back if anyone has back up files of the program, and so am I. If being brought in for questioning means that I can help make sure something I created never comes back then it's a small price to pay." Even with his reasoning the whole family still looked uncomfortable.

"Your mind is made up and nothing we can say will change it?" Mariko finally asked, Wabisuke nodded. "Then we will support your decision, but once this whole mess is over come back and tell us everything, and don't wait ten years this time." Wabisuke grinned.

"I won't, not this time." Those words simple as they were clearly helped the rest of the family relax, at least to the point that they remembered that there was food in front of them and food was meant to be eaten. "I plan to turn myself in tonight, I'll let you know how it goes initially, I guess that's everything."

"Like hell that's everything!" Shota shouts jumping up, the fact that only a few people even flinched at his outburst showed just how normal an occurrence this behavior was.

"Shota would you sit down?" His father Tasuke said in exasperation, "What in the world is it this time?"

"OH COME ON! Am I the only one who remembers what this guy did to my car?!" Shota shouted red in the face with anger. Awkward silence filled the room, because yes, between everything, everyone besides Shota had forgotten about his car. "First he steels it then he drives it back here like a maniac and crashes it! And what in the world was he doing beforehand?! It already looked like he had driven it through a mountain of scrap metal!" Wabisuke placed a small book on the table.

"That's all the information on my bank accounts, there should be enough in there to not only replace your car but also cover a good portion of the damages done to the house."

"How in the world do you have so much money?" Mansaku voiced everyone's curiosity, Wabisuke shrugged.

"I've actually been working as a programmer for years, and I actually made some pretty good money. It just… never seemed like enough to come home with, until the military dropped in."

"We'll make sure it's put to good use." Mariko said as she reached out and took the book.

"That's all I ask."

"Alright, enough gabbing," Mansuke said in his loud commanding voice, "everyone eat up before it all goes cold, can't face the day on an empty stomach!"

The mood lightened slightly, the rest of the family smiled and returned their attention to their food.

With breakfast done the family started to "face the day" by tackling the immense amount of cleaning that had to be done, both inside and around the house. Not much cleaning had gotten done following the probe crash as they had decided to devote their effort to arranging the funeral. Funerals, even simple one, took a lot of planning.

Outside along the edge of the property Monsaku sighed as he and his sons, along with Ryohei, Kenji, and Mansuke looked at what was left of the wall.

"That impact certainly did a number on everything but the gate is completely gone." He said sadly, "What are we to do?"

"We rebuild it of course!" Masuke said loudly as he flexed his muscles, which were oddly impressive for a man his age, "We have the man power after all!"

"Do you have any idea how much time and money that would take?" his younger brother said trying not to sound exasperated, "We all have lives, and jobs to think about, and many of us have our families."

"Oh come on grandpa," Ryohei said grinning, "we could do it! It will take some organization but we've got the manpower, and I could use it as a work out for baseball next year." He flexed his muscles.

"The Jinnouchi clan has lived on this land for over ten generations!" Manskue yelled, "No way am I trusting someone else to do the repair work."

"Why not dad?" Yorihiko asked, "We're all in Ueta right now anyway, in one way or another we were all involved with Love Machine and that whole incident, and it's like Granny would say, a family cleans up their own messes." Monsaku couldn't help but smile a little at hearing his mother quoted in such a fashion.

"Oh very well, I can see that I'm out voted, but don't expect me to put aside everything to slave out in the summer heat with the rest of you."

"Just you wait!" Masuke yelled, "we'll have this old house and the grounds rebuilt in no time!"

"Speaking of the grounds, what about where the probe hit?" Kenji asked, everyone looked to where the hot spring was still shooting high into the sky. Upon examination after the funeral it was confirmed that the water was indeed from a hot spring, and that what was left of the probe was still there.

"well…" Monsaku started slowly, "the ground where that satellite hit does belong to the Jinouchi clan…"

"I've always wondered what it would be like to live right next to a hot spring" Masuke said, "and now we have the opportunity."

"Wait," Kenji said in surprise, "you plan to make it into an outdoor bath house?"

"Why not? It's there isn't it" Mansuke said matter of factly.

"Well yeah but… do you even know how to?" Mansuke barked out one of his deep throated laughs at the question.

"Nothing to it!" He responded flexing his muscles, it seemed that many of the jinouchi men did that a lot to somehow clarify points Kenji noted.

"So in short," Monsaku said taking off his glasses and began to polish them absently, "we've decided that we're rebuilding this house all on our own, and in addition are building an open air bath."

"That's what it sounds like dad" Yorihiko said grinning at his dad's exasperation.

"Well as I said, just don't expect me to slave out here with the rest of you"

"We won't dad," Katsuhiko said, "in the meantime though we should probably get back to the house and see what help they need."

"Yeah, let's go before aunt Mariko gets angry" Kunihiko said only half joking.

"Yeah, nothing's scarier than sis when she's angry" Mansuke said as he started to lead the way back to the house.

As they reached the house Kenji paused to look back over everything, he smiled slightly. Maybe rebuilding a wall wasn't the most relaxing way to spend a summer, but just a few days with the Jinouichi clan had proved to be on the most exciting summers of his life, who knew what more time with them would bring? 

**A/N Well here's the first chapter. Sorry it took so long to upload, I had hoped to get it posted awhile ago but the chapter wasn't working out the way I had hoped and then I was out of the country for just over a weak and I couldn't really work things at all then.**

**Also a quick note, for anyone who's read the manga version of summer wars, I am basing this ff on the movie so if things disagree that's why. Although the two volume manga is great and if you haven't read it you should. **


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